Lite-On iHES208 8x Blu-ray Combo Drive

What's in the box?:

• Lite-On iHES208 8x Blu-ray Combo Drive
• CyberLink Software CD
• User's Manual
• Quick Installation Guide
• Front Panel Replacement Guide
• Silver Replacement Bezel
• SATA Cable
• Mounting Screws
• Warranty Information

Physical Features:

The drive Lite-On sent us for this review was manufactured in February of 2009 and had firmware 8L05. For this review I used firmware versions 8L05 and 8L08.

From the front, the iHES208 looks very similar to Lite-On's previous DVD writers. It not only shares the same basic bezel design, but has many of the same logos. Along the front of the tray you can see a few showing support for the DVD+ReWritable and DVD Multi specifications, as well as HP's LightScribe technology.

Below the tray you can see the iHES208's single LED. Off by default, this LED lights up green whenever the drive is reading or writing.

If black isn't your color, you're in luck. The retail version of the iHES208 also comes with a silver replacement bezel.

The rear of the AD-7240S is fairly straight forward. By looking at the picture below you can see the drive's SATA interface and power connector.

Technical Specs:

The specs below have been taken from Lite-On's website and the documentation that came along with the drive.

LightScribe:

The iHES208 is one of the first Blu-ray drives from Lite-On to feature LightScribe technology. Developed by HP, LightScribe lets you burn durable, silk screen quality labels directly onto your CD's and DVD's using the same drive that burned the data. According to HP, it's as simple as burning the data, flipping the disc, and then burning the label.

Of course you can't do this with just any drive, media or software. While LightScribe capable drives use the same laser when burning both the data and label, they have to be able to accurately control the laser's focus and position as well as the spindle speed. They also must be able to recognize LightScribe media. These special discs have a thin dye coating on the label side that absorbs laser light. This triggers a chemical reaction that produces a color change, allowing the user to print text, artwork or graphics.

Even if you have a LightScribe capable drive and media, you will need software that supports it. Most major software companies have pledged support for the technology. However, at the time of this review, the list of compatible software is still relatively short. For the iHES208, Lite-On turned to CyberLink. Using the bundled LabelPrint software you can create and burn LightScribe disc labels.

Once you've created your LightScribe label, you're ready to print it. Before you can do this though, you will need to choose the contrast. Keep in mind this option not only changes the level of detail, it also affects the amount of time it takes to print the label. The higher the quality, the longer the process will take. 

How long does it take to print a label? For testing purposes, we printed a disc using Memorex's LightScribe v1.2 color CD-R media, and the quality was set to "best". The results are shown below.

Memorex CD-R v1.2 - 28 minutes

The iHES208 features what Lite-On calls SmartWrite technology. Previously known as HyperTuning, SmartWrite automatically creates writing strategies for unknown, or unsupported, DVD±R and DVD±R DL media. Simply enable SmartWrite, insert your disc and burn. The new writing strategy is then created on-the-fly.

SmartWrite also works with supported media. When enabled, the drive will ignore the writing strategy stored in the firmware and instead create a new one. This is very useful if you are trying to record a disc that uses another company's MID code (I.E. fake TYG02 code discs).

OverSpeed:

The iHES208 supports Lite-On's OverSpeed function. When enabled, the drive will try to write to DVD±R and DVD±R DL media at a speed higher than what it would normally be supported. To do this, OverSpeed relies heavily on SmartWrite. When a disc is written at a higher than normal speed, SmartWrite will automatically create a new writing strategy for it.

Oddly enough, the OverSpeed function on the iHES208 also lets you write to DVD±R media at a speed lower than what is normally supported. Looking at the screenshots above, you can see that the drive is able to write at 4x when OverSpeed is enabled.

Write Quality Testing:

The iHES208 is one of the few drives capable of performing write quality testing with Blu-ray Disc media. When combined with software like CD Speed or Erik Deppe's new Opti Drive Control, the drive is able to report the Long Distance Code (LDC) and Burst Indicator Subcode (BIS).

While it's still too early to know what "good" results should look like, c't magazine has stated that the average LDC should stay below 13 and the maximum BIS should not exceed 8. In my own testing, I've found that the LDC reported by CD Speed and Opti Drive Control is considerably higher than 13.

More Features:

By looking at the picture below, you can see that Lite-On's new BD combo drive is identified as an "ATAPI iHES208 2."

Nero also shows that the iHES208 has a maximum CD writing speed of 48x and a 2048KB buffer. This buffer is backed up by Seamless Link buffer underrun protection as well. According to Nero, the iHES208 can also write CD-Text and overburn. When testing the drive's capacity, it had no problems overburning up to 99 minutes with our CompUSA media. 

Using Alex Noe's Weak Sector Utility we were able to determine that the iHES208 is a "two sheep" burner and is capable of backing titles protected by SafeDisc 2.90. Like most drives, it did not pass the "three sheep" test.

Here is a screen shot from Nero's InfoTool. This program queries the drive to see what its reading and writing capabilities are. InfoTool had no problems detecting the iHES208's maximum reading and writing speeds, recording modes, buffer underrun protection and 2MB buffer.

InfoTool also shows that the iHES208 is an RPC-2 DVD drive. This means that the drive's region is stored in the firmware.  The region can be changed five times and after that it cannot be changed anymore. While there isn't an RPC-1 firmware available for the drive, there is a utility available that can make the drive region free.

While InfoTool gives us a quick glance at the iHES208's features, DVDINFOpro provides a little more information on some of the drive's reading and writing capabilities.  By looking at the screenshot above you can see that while Lite-On's new drive can read and write to DVD+R DL, DVD-R DL and DVD-RAM media, it does not support the Mt. Rainier format.

The iHES208 also supports a feature called "bitsetting." Using Nero, CD Speed or Lite-On's BookType Utility, you can set the book type for DVD+R, DVD+RW and DVD+R DL media. By doing so, your recorded discs will identify themselves as "DVD-ROM." This feature comes in handy if you have an older DVD player that has problems playing recordable media.

I should point out that the iHES208 can also set the book type of DVD+RW media after the data has been burned to disc. This "Write Now" feature is available in both KProbe and Lite-On's BookType Utility.